Topics - Mr_Dark

Website Offline / Server CrashLast Thursday one of the hard disks in my server failed which caused the website to load very slowly or not at all. Unfortunately I was away for the weekend and was unable to fix it, but now (as you can see) the website is back online.

Future of Pokemon UniverseSince almost nobody is working on the game anymore, I'm open to suggestions on what to do with the website. If you have a nice idea for a (Pokemon related) website which fits our name (Pokemon Universe), feel free to post it in this topic or send me an e-mail.

As it stands now, the website is just a waste of money and bandwidth.

- On average the website still gets about 100 unique visitors each day- The website still ranks high in search results related to "Pokemon"- I'll be willing to "sponsor" the domain and website hosting, so you'll only be in charge of the website itself.- The new website can be a reformat of the site we currently have or something completely new

Looking for C# and Java developers who can continue my (little) work on the MapEditor (C#, OpenGL), Server (C#) and Client (Java, WebGL).

Most of you know I have a full-time job as a programmer and when I come home in the evening I don't have the will-power to continue working on my own projects. Besides this I'm starting up another business on the side. So when I have some free time I'd rather relax and play a game or watch some tv shows. Therefor I'm looking for people who want to continue the little work I've done. I will still be available to help and perhaps write some code here and there, but building all three products (MapEditor, Server and Client) at the same time is just too much.

IntroAfter some massive delays - due to various reasons - the update is finally here (partially). *yeey*I can make this a big introduction but you don't want to hear me ramble on about insignificant stuff. We hope this update will satisfy your "PU-needs" for now until we release some more

The update is split into parts so it's easy to see what each team has in store for you when the game actually comes out. We will post some additional updates in the near future, so stay tuned for more

Happy reading,

PU Team

DevelopmentTeam: Mr_Dark, Urmel, Zatir

Client & Game ServerOver the last few months there is not much that has been changed regarding the game client or server. Most of the base features are already done and we could not continue without game content.

Features which are completed:

Player and NPC movement. (We put a lot of effort in this, walking should be smooth even for Australian and USA players.)

NPC spawning and interaction (quest and shop)

PvP and PvE battles

Outfit customization

Chat (local, world and private)

Dynamic weather system. (For now you don't see any of this in-game, but it's used for battles)

Once there is more game content available we shall continue development and implement new and awesome features. Development may go slow, but we take great care in finding bugs so you guys get a stable game and can enjoy the game instead of fighting bugs (unlike another Pokemon MMO).

Game ClientBelow you'll see some mock-up screenshots of the current GUI. They have been posted before, but for the people who haven't seen them.

PokÉditorFor those who don't know PokÉditor is the name of the game editor which is used by our mapping and quest team to create an exciting and dynamic world for you to explore.Our latest developer addition - Zatir - has taken the task on him to further develop this software so it can become a core component in our workflow.

At this moment the real mapping started a few days ago. In the pictures below you can see how our current editor looks like. Please note, these are made from a test-environment, so this won't be the real map and real used names. Just for test purposes only. Zatir is still busy developing the editor, so every team member can use the editor for his/her own development position.

We have been working hard to get things going. I wanted to show a lot of paperdoll stuff, but there is quiet a bit of editing and recoloring I need to do before I show it. On the same note, the female sprite is post-poned and probably will be released later in the game for the female players, I apologize. We will be working on getting four sets of items for each part of clothing for starter clothes, for your character. So your character will even be unique at the beginning of the game, with many more items to purchase, with game currency, in the game.

There has been 200 tiles added to the tileset over the past three days, giving Kamaran a good beginning with making levels. This includes, Pokemarkt, Pokecenter, and Harbor/Dock. I have plans to have more uploaded here within' a few weeks or so. You'll probably see a lot of the graphics update in Kamaran's update, than mine.

Wish we had more to show you, and eventually we will. But for now this should help everyone get an idea of whats going on in the art department.

MapTeam: Kamaran

MusicTeam: Hiteryan

Quite a bunch of songs are already done for the game. However it is more fun to drop them slowly around. This time you'll have the chance to listen to yet another battle theme! You can download this and a few other tracks from the game at Hiteryan's Last.fm, under "Pokémon Universe Original Soundtrack Vol. 1" or you can use the link below to directly listen to the newly available Gym Leader battle theme. Enjoy!

Here's a little taster of what we've got for you, in the form of an in game newspaper:

Additionally, we have some character bios for you guys:

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Name: Fisherman Fred

Bio: A late arrival to the laid back beach town of Port Ouro, he originally planned on only staying a few weeks for a relaxing holiday. However, within a few days the exciting fever that swept across Miryus caught him up. No other fishing spot had such a variety of Pokémon, and the huge influx of explorers and new trainers meant that there was a more than substantial living to be made from selling his catches. The main attraction however, proved to be the atmosphere of the area. The all year round sunshine was a perfect breeding ground for surfers, swimmers and fisherman, all of whom have an avid interest in anything water type. Although this many people sharing one stretch of water has caused issues in the past, Fred has done his best to stay neutral in the disputes, and his small hut is located far away enough from the main bay to have been relatively unaffected by the recently built pier. Fred can usually be found fishing or in his hut with his large rod collection, something he is willing to explain to any aspiring fishermen or women. If it’s more of a battle you’re after then he can usually accommodate an eager trainer’s needs too, he regularly takes part in the local water type tournaments to keep his skills sharp.

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Name: The Hooded Stranger

Bio: A traveller who enjoys spreading gossip at any moment. He seems particularly fond of the PU development team. Seek him out to hear all the enticing details of the team, and his personal opinions on the region.

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Name: Kieren

Bio: Little is known about Kieren’s past, all that anyone knows is that he was there before the Rockbound Village was. He became one of the region’s gym leaders after proving his prowess with the rock type Pokémon by battling and defeating the man originally appointed as Rockbound’s gym leader. After his embarrassing defeat, he ceded the title to Kieren. Kieren claims that his basic life in the wilderness keeps him, his Pokémon and his tactics tough, and although his gym is technically in the caves beneath the village, he has been known to hand out his badge to strong challengers in the wilderness.

I want to help!Did you get excited after reading and watching all the awesome stuff we've made and now you want to help us with something?You're in luck because we have some open positions which might suit you:

Of course you can always apply for another position on our team. Just post your job application - with some info about yourself and of course the position you'd like to fulfill - in the Jobs forum and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Job contentSince the resolution of our game client is much larger then that of the original Pokemon games (and because we don't want to use the original sprites due to copyright), we need new battle sprites. Your main task will be to create high resolution battle sprites (front and back).

Your second task (optional) will be the further creation of our in-game GUI. At the moment we have the base parts of the user interface, but in the future we'll probably need custom windows, for which you'll be responsible to create.

ResponsibilitiesCreation of high resolution Pokemon battle sprites. These sprites can be your own creation and don't have to be a larger copy of the originals.

Example of how this will look:

What do we ask?

Active in our IRC channel and staff forums (this is our main way of communication)

Minimum age is 16 years (18+ preferred)

A "can-do" and "get-it-done" mentality

Good understanding of vector art and color management

Interested?If you are interested in creating new and exciting vector art for our project just private message Bryan or Mr_Dark and we will get back to you as soon as possible! Make sure to include some previous work examples in your appliance.

Me and Urmel are currently in Japan and here it's 2013 for about 4,5 hours now. So Happy New Year to everyone! 2013 will bring a lot of good news for PU, I know we say this every year, but this time it's true Have a good ending and we'll see each other in the new year!

We're happy to announce that as of today we have two (yes not one, but two!) new pixel artists on our team.

One of them you might already know, since he's been a regular on the forums and chat for quite a while now. The other one is an old friend from our lead pixel artist Bryan, they worked on their own Pokemon game in the past.

Please welcome Monzta and Whitepinkbun to the team!

They will be working on the player clothing and designing (quest) NPCs. You'll be able to see some of their work in our upcoming update.

Even with the website back up the DDoS attack is not over and we're still looking at solutions to prevent the current attack and attacks which may happen in the future. So if the website is unavailable again it will probably mean the attackers have figured out our current solution and started attacking that.

As a side note, our chat is always available so you can always contact us there if you're unable to access the website. Bookmark the link so you'll always have it

That's all the info I can give you for now. I'll report back when I have more info about the stability of our server and website.

What going on with Pokemon Universe? Are you guys still working on it? When will it be released? How do I played? PU is a scam! Where do I download the game!?These lines must be the most asked/said things ever on our forum and chat. So here I am trying to explain the current status of Pokemon Universe.

Yes, behind the scenes we're still working on Pokemon Universe, but not as hard as I like it to be. We're slowly getting there but our problem is the lack of pixel artists. At the moment we only have Brian and Yukimenoko, but they can only do so much in the little free time they have and the list of pixel art we need is pretty big. Still they're doing an awesome job!!So as you might have figured out by now, we're really in need of skilled and motivated pixel artists. If you are this person or you know someone, come to us and we'll figure out the rest.

Ok, so... That was the "bad" news, now it's time for some more positive news. Declan_23 and Cortex have done some nice work with writing the new starting towns including quests. These quests including the short stories you might have read about the factions are hopefully going to keep you continue playing to unravel the mysteries of Miryus.

As for the development of the client and server. These projects have been put on a lower priority because of the current lack of content. Note that a lot of work has already been done code-wise, we just need some more content before we can finish all the code.

I'd like to thank ALL PU members for their hard work and I hope we can continue for a long time!

Now.. something you all have been waiting for, a release date for Pokemon Universe..... When it's done!We know this is not the release date you expected (or maybe you did, if you know me ), but we do want to keep you more involved in the development process. Therefore we have created a ToDo list with most of the things that need to be created before we can release a first (beta) version.